Cannabis and Depersonalization: How Anxiety Changes Your Perception

Cannabis, among other psychedelics, is known to be sought mainly for its mind altering properties. A change in perception can serve as a resource for creativity and carries the potential to uncover the answers to puzzling questions, however some things stay better buried such as many mental disorders. Many, mainly those with underlying anxiety disorders or related mental maladies, who experience depersonalization for the first time, be it drug or naturally induced, are left breathless due to the overt peculiarity the dissociated altered state of awareness brings along with it. Such an intense shock and overload of information the state can manifest and can be so convincing that one starts to question everything including their own personal integrity. Given enough attention these thoughts will remain ruminant as a consequence of the acrid shock which is difficult to shake off, leaving you in a vicious cycle of depersonalization and panic attacks, which helps to anchor the current deterrent state of mind even further. Because the contrast is so strikingly profound one will even start questioning his/her sanity and destiny falling deeply into depression and helplessness.

Being enslaved in such a disastrous, yet innocuous, perception can take the pleasure out of everyday life and turn every second on Earth into uninhabitable misery. However, as permanent and detrimental to ones physical health (due to many psychosomatic symptoms) the dissociation might appear it is, in fact, the exact opposite, only a harmless deceiving illusion skewing your view on reality. The initial introduction to depersonalization can be one of the most deliberating moments for the sufferer as he/she finds it difficult to define and comprehend. Therefore one step, among many, towards recovery from such an event is to realize the reality of the situation as paradoxical it may be and sound. Developing proper cognitive skills is essential for recovering from depersonalization and these include logically explaining and addressing the subjective feelings skewing one’s sensory perception. When you feel on edge and are about to panic turn your attention away from all the intrusive thoughts inherent to anxiety by explaining the real course of the situation: If you feel like you are going crazy then notify yourself that the truth is far from your apprehension as psychotic people do not realize when they are delusional. Among others, a healthy diet, supplements (B-complex, Zinc, Magnesium, BCAA, etc.) and exercise will prove of vast benefit in accelerating recovery, because all these serve to protect the brain and allow for regeneration and, in case of exercise and some supplements, even synthesis of new neural connections (neurogenesis).